The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday updated its guidelines for the prevention of Covid-19 in K-12 schools, aligning the recommendations with the recently updated Covid-19 quarantine and isolation guidelines. agency day for the general public. It is also expanding its recommendations for screening tests and urging to cancel or go virtual with certain extracurricular and athletic activities to protect in-person learning.

New K-12 school recommendations say children who have not been fully immunized and are exposed to coronavirus should quarantine for at least five days after their last close contact with someone with Covid-19 . Adults who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 or who have not received a booster are advised to follow this recommendation as well.

Previously, CDC K-12 guidelines recommended a 14-day home quarantine for people exposed to the coronavirus who were not fully vaccinated.

The new K-12 recommendations state that students, teachers and staff with Covid-19 should stay home and isolate themselves from others for at least five full days. Day 0 is considered the first day of symptoms or the day of a positive viral test for people who do not have symptoms. People whose symptoms improve can leave isolation after five full days if they are fever-free for 24 hours. They should wear a mask around others for an additional five days.

Previously, CDC K-12 guidelines recommended an isolation period of at least 10 days for people infected with the virus.

The agency also updated its recommendation for screening tests for K-12 schools.

“In K-12 schools, drug tests can help identify and isolate cases quickly, initiate quarantine, and identify clusters to help reduce risk for in-person education,” says new guide .

Previously, Kindergarten to Grade 12 recommendations indicated that screening tests should be offered to students who have not been fully immunized when community transmission is at moderate, substantial, or high levels. The guidelines now say that at a minimum, these students should be offered screening tests. It includes an updated table that recommends screening tests for all students at least once a week in moderate to high transmission communities.

In addition, the new K-12 recommendations now recommend screening tests for all teachers and staff at least once a week. Previously, such screening was only recommended for teachers and staff who were not fully immunized.

Recommended screening tests for high-risk sports, such as soccer and wrestling, and high-risk extracurricular activities, such as singing or orchestrating, have also been updated. In previous guidelines, screening was recommended at least once a week for participants who were not fully immunized and twice a week in areas with high coronavirus transmission. According to an updated table in the recommendations, these screenings now include all participants, regardless of their vaccination status.

In high transmission areas, schools are now advised to virtually cancel or organize high-risk sports and extracurricular activities in order to protect in-person learning; previous guidelines did not advise cancellations or virtual events in high transmission areas if all participants were fully immunized. Currently, according to the CDC, more than 98% of counties have high transmission of Covid-19.

In areas with moderate to high transmission, previous guidelines on low and intermediate risk sports also recommended screening participants who were not fully immunized once a week. This recommendation now includes all participants, regardless of their vaccination status.

The-CNN-Wire

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